operated with a dictator ship of the speaker. john boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than keeping the nation on footing. >> john boehner's office fired back -- senator reid should talk less and legislate more. the house has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff. the president gets set to land in washington this hour. there's new word that the president has called all four congressional leaders. reid, mcconnell, boehner and pelosi. . joining me to talk more, we have peter alexander standing by at the white house as well as nbc's mike viqueira on capitol hill. some verbal smackdown, basically flipping the lights back on and harry reid taking to the floor

to eviscerate speaker boehner. >> the sad part is you often seen the floor opened that way. mitch mcconnell being later today. i'm sure we'll hear something later. to hear it two days after christmas and a matter of days before we go through the fiscal cliff, obviously not encouraging. harry reid says time is running hout. he doesn't know if they could go through the legislative hurdles. if they have the votes around here, they can legislate the sky is green and the grass is blue. that's not an issue. what harry reid is really saying is mitch mcconnell, get on board, don't try to filibuster. of course they're talking about a bill that had raise capital on couples making more than $250,000 a year, and do a few other nuts and bolts that are deemed the bare minimum that the president wants to see done before we hit january 1st. i've got to tell you, though, getting back to the votes, the votes simply aren't there in the

house of representatives for that. they're likely not even there in the senate, so we're back at square one, amazing as it is to say at this point, thomas. >> when we talk about what we know about the president, as we expect him to return to washington landing at andrews air force base, but what more do we know about this phone calls or the phone calls that went out to the four congressional leaders? >> reporter: we know they took place before the president left time with his family before flying back to washington. he should be back here within about an hour from now, weather permitting. he'll be able to take marine one here, but i exchanged e-mails with top aides. they say they're not going to provide any more details about the tone or content, but it's clear this white house is sensitive to the image that the president was somehow disconnected to this process, allowing the country to edge even closer to this fiscal cliff. as you just heard from mike a

second ago, obviously only more tough language between the two sides, this is pretty much what the holidays look lie in washington. >> mike, let's talk about what really matters here, the dance, as we tick out of 2012 and go into to 13, a week from today on january 3rd, the 113th comes in, your prediction is probably a week after that, by the 10th we'll have something. >> reporter: i'm not alone out on this raft, either. as the days go by, it seems more and more likely. it gets back to the threshold question -- are the votes there in the house of representatives? and specifically would any speaker, whether it's john boehner, nancy pelosi or anybody else, allow a bill to pass like this, especially one that violates four republican party doctrine that would raise taxes, would they allow it to -- and the answer to that is probably not. democrats have alleged for week now what john bain ser doing is

waiting until the gavel is safely in his hands for the next congress. that happens on january 3rd, when they formally elect a speaker. that's one theory, but probably the thing that make the most sense is the fact that then it becomes a vote to cut taxes for 98% of americans, instead of allowing them to rise for 1% or 2%. that is something logically the republicans would probably or more likely go along with, though at this point who knows where we'll end up with on this thing. january 3rd is the new congress. in the days after that, that's the inertia it scenario. >> gentlemen, thanks so that. i appreciate it. we want to bring in today's panel s perry bacon, democratic strategy margie omero, and chip saltzmann.

i want to talk about with what steve la tourette had to say today being interviewed on cnn. >> this isn't a one party or a one house problem. this is leaders of both parties and all branches of the government not willing to make the deal they know they have to make. everybody wants to play the blame game. this is about to put us over the edge. >> perry, i want to start with you. if perception is reality and the blame is going to matter to somebody, which side is it really going to matter to? ivities the blame is on both sides. what's driven this whole process is republicans are very opposed to -- just the republicans who will vote for any tax increase. we learned last week from the plan b vote. once we go over the cliff, republicans are ready for a tax cut, not an increase.

right now that's what the big challenge is. >> chip, is that the biggest strategy here, get to the third and pass the third, the new congress comes in, boehner danger doesn't exist anymore, his speakership stays in place and grover norquist gives a thumbs up to up? >> i don't think that was the strategy a week ago. i think the speaker was trying to put the deal together, as we've seen the senate not -- i think that may become the strategy. i've always thought they would wait until the last hour, put a band eight on it, but wait until the iii so they can vote for a tax cut makes sense as well. >> marjorie, there will be people on the left looking at this. this is basically a clean late. does the left look at this as a way for the president to stand firm in the fact that in one federal voice he was reelected

on taxes going up. so is this going to be palatability to the left if the president is standing firm? >> absolutely. you've seen his numbers have increased since the election and also increased in how people view his handling of the fiscal cliff, while attitudes towards republicans are consistently bad and the blame and disapproval is only growing for them. it's costing them in the polls and at the polls this crisis of leadership, this consistent blocking that every obama has tried to do. it's really over a tax increase, and for what? it's really to stop primary challenges. that's what this is all about. i mean, it's really bringing the country to a standstill for their own political short term. >> "new york times" is talking about the urgency issue in all of this, and lacking urgency that we have witnessed. they say, yeah, with days left

before the fiscal punch lands, both sides are exhibiting little sense of urgency. rather than to foster progress. perry is that the biggest thing, the primaries moving out of this and how everything looks back? >> i think there are two things going on. the first is democrats generally feel they won a man dade. they're not backing down -- the second thing is the primary issue. you have members of congress say last week there was a proposal to raise taxes, and a lot of republicans said i can't vote for that, a million only tax increase. they were worried about primaries. that's driving this in a very strong way. there are people in washington, d.c. that will tell us this is how it all happens.

congressman tom cole appeared with luke russert on "the daily rundown." i want to play what he had to say. >> he had the complete support of everybody for plan b, and so this is a tactical debate and discussion, it's not a debate over john boehner's leadership. i think he'll be the speaker, honestly not for two years, but for four. >> can we play the other one that talks about how the deals come together at the last moment? let's queue that one up. >> that's what happened in the budget deal, the debt ceiling deal. i think that's what's going to happen again. >> why are you cautiously optimistic? >> well to paraphrase rorchld reagan, there's so much manure around here, it's got to be a pony around here. >> when they find that pony, whose office will it be in?

>> it's' darkest before the dawn. maybe there is a dawn before we can get this deal. i think a lot will be looked at with mcconnell's speech on the floor. if he follows senator reid and starts the blame game, it will be pretty bleak. if he starts talking about solutions and this is important for the country, maybe a deal is in the works. >> harry reid took to the floor with strong words, we know mcconnell will do the same thing. >> we are, mcconned said our number one goal is to defeat president obama. in november the american people said very clearly they want people to work it. this is proving that at least when it comes to congressional republicans, the answer is know.

great to see all three of you, thank you. president george h.w. wish takes a turn for the worse, but doctors are still optimistic. then hundreds of teachers sign up for free gun training in utah, and arizona's attorney general wants to arm school employees. the reverend al sharpton will join me to talk about his efforts to curb gun violence. should teachers be allowed to carry concealed weapons at school? tweet me or find me on facebook.

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gun control activists are vowing pressure on washington to ban assault weapons. al sharpton joined nypd

commissioner ray kelly on a petition to ban assault weapons. the reverend says he will organize a protest against nra and gun manufacturers in washington next month. meanwhile, public opinion remains mixed. a new "usa today"/gallup poll has, but when it comes to banning assault weapons, 51% are against it, numbers are relatively unchanged from a year ago. reverend al sharpton joins me in studio. great to see you. we have a copy of the paper, as we look at the efforts, what is the strategy to try to curb the gun violence, especially when you team up with commissioner kelly. people may say here's two big city slickers trying to take the

guns out of our hands. >> first of all, commissioner kelly and i have agreed. we. so what we wanted to show on christmas day, he came out to the national action network feeds the homeless and seniors and we stood together and said despite or differences, we agree on banning assault weapons, and we agree that there must be gun control, hoping to use that as a model, saying that there must be bipartisan agreement about gun control in washington. if we can get unlikely people to stand together, we can maybe lead to some sane gun policies in this country. >> certainly you're no stranger to end the fight to gun violence, but when we talk about what you're trying to do next month, what are your hopes there? >> my hopes are to raise with the teachers, randy weingarten

of the federation of teachers, all talking about how we raise the point when mr. lapierre and the nra had the opportunity to say let us deal with some sane gun policies, let's talk about how people don't need a magazine with 100 rounds in it, that's notself defense, that's not hunting. and how we can back up -- yes, people have a right to protect their family, but you don't need all of this to protect your family. he did the opposite. he said let's put armed guards in the school, let's arm teachers. let's remember now, we have seen this year education budgets cut. we don't have money to give teachers raises. we had a teachers strike in chicago. we don't have money to do things that teachers need, but we'll find money to arm them, to train them, to buy them guns, ammunition. what are we saying? so we can arm teachers, but we can't give teachers money to give them the ability to be better educators? to me that's the wrong message

to send. >> two sides are looking for meaningful contributions. the fact there was a gun buy-back program, the day after christmas, 1500 rifles and handguns were taken back by police in exchange for groceries and a cash back program there in los angeles. hugely successful. meanwhile, arizona's attorney general is proposes a voluntary programs where schools would arm at least one staff member. meanwhile, there's a gun group in utah offers a free concealed weapons course to public schoolteachers today. as we look for federal solution for this, and answers from our elected leaders, is it really the onus being on the local school districts right now to protect the kids and this is the best they can come up with? >> i think the buyback programs are good. but i think when you start talking about voluntary training, the question becomes, if you're going to do that, one,

are you making it more targeting of teachers? if you have a madman like you had in connecticut, and we went to newtown, we went and rallied right outside of newtown at churches there. when you have a mad man comes in and he feels the teacher is armed, they become the first target. you're dealing with people with automatic and semiautomatic weapons. a teacher will not be able to stop that with a regular gun or even an automatic gun. again, who will mandate that for all schools? who will pay for that? it is not the solution. the solution is the way you stop a bad guy with a gun is take the gun, not try to have a good guy with a gun. you take the gun. then he's just a bad guy and we can deal with him being bad differently than we deal with a bad guy with a gun with 100 rounds of ammunition. >> sir, great to see you. >> thank you. >> as always, you can watch the reverend weeknights 6:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. later in the show action i'll have a chance to speak with the

mayor of marlboro, new jersey about that city's plan to have armed guards in all of its schools come january. meanwhile, we switch gears to talk about the record snowfall, the freezing rain, howling winds, tornadoes in the south. the northeast is getting pummelled right now. we'll update you after this. [ "the odd couple" theme playing ] humans.

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the winter storm has left at least 12 people dead and thousands stranded due to canceled flights is finally moving out, about you not before dumping more snow in new york and parts of new england. this storm brought record snowfall, icy roads and more than 2,000 canceled flight. in the south, this same system was responsible for 26 tornadoes, all hitting the ground on christmas day. two more were reported yesterday. forecasters are now tracking this new storm that could bring even more snow and more travel headaches. the weather channel's eric

fisher is in lewiston maine. there's lots of snow there. >> reporter: absolutely. the story here in maine is not that it's snowing, but that it handle been snowing in december in maine or any month in new england the past year and a half or so. last winter it was all about the warm records, and now a different type of story. now we'll have the snow flying all day long. many spots will pick up a foot, if not more. this point, we have modest snowbanks. it is lewiston, maine, and we should end up with around 10 or 12 inches here. if our skiing or snowboarding, you're happy about this. some reports have already gone up over a foot. if you're traveling, it's a different story. the roads here snowpacked, i-95, very different, and if you're flying, hundreds and hundreds of

canceled flights. it started all the way back in west texas where they had a white christmas in amarillo and lubbock. thomas, we are up to 65% in the lower 48, covered with snow right now. it's almost triple this time last year. >> a lot of people traveling. eric fisher, thank you, sir. i appreciate it. here's a look at some of the other stories topping the news. former president george h.w. bush remains in intensive care after his fever took a turn for the worst. bush is in guarded condition. doctors say they remain cautiously optimistic about his treatment. nelson mandela has been discharged from the hospital after being treated for a lung infection and gallstone. officials say he'll continue to receive top-level care at his home until he fully recovers. the late senator inouye's successor will be sworn in today. brian schatz is flying to

washington this hour with president obama. he was chosen by kneale abercrombie, despite inouye's wishes that congresswoman hanabusa take his seat. emergency contraceptives will remain part of the federal law. and russian president vladimir putin says he will sign the law banning adoptions of russian children by u.s. citizens. rocky had no idea whyn was gone for so long... ...but he'd wait for her forever, for any reason, and would always be there with the biggest welcome home. for a love this strong, dawn only feeds him iams. compared to other leading brands, it has 50% more animal protein. ...to help keep rocky's body as strong as a love that never fades...

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vacation as the nation teeters on the edge of the fiscal cliff. he went so far to accuse the leader to holding up votes. we're learning that harry reid will give a news conference at 1:00 p.m. eastern. we'll go live for you. president obama is arriving right now in washington, d.c., coming back from hawaii, trading his tropical vacation for the hard reality of the fiscal cliff negotiations. the president called all four congressional leaders last night in an effort to reach a deal, but did that call fall on deaf ears? jared bernstein, former chief economist to vip biden, as well as a contributor. i want to start with the new statement from senator mitch mcconnell's office coming out says last night he called other lead serious. the leader is happy to review

what the president has in mind, but to day date the majority has not put forward a plan. jared, is that good they're actually speaking, however far apart as it may sound, at least they're talking? >> it's a bit good. better to be talking than north. the unfortunate thing are the words they're saying. i don't hear much compromise or kind of conciliation in the statements we've heard thus far. i do hear a lot of theatrics, you go first, no you go first. it's strange to say the democrats haven't put forth any legislation on this, because in fact they have. in fact, a democratic majority in the senate passed a bill that's pretty similar to the compromise that the president was offering before he left for hawaii. that's the tax rates are froch for 250,000 and below, they go up for the top 2%, sequester gets kicked down the road,

unemployment gets extended, a few other cats and dogs. thats not really an accurate statement from mitch mcconnell there. >> as we look at the bigger picture, tim guide ner is throwing fuel on the fiscal fire t. warning that the nation will hit the dead ceiling on monday right on the edge of the cliff. geithner say the treasury will be able to take what he calls extraordinary measures to pay the nation's bills on time, but uncertain how long the stalemate lasts. meanwhile, we have the "new york post" cover here, this fall is really going to hurt. the treasury secretary throwing fuel on this fire, what does that do to the urgency that seems to be lacking back in d.c.? >> well, exactly. i mean, where you just ended is where i would start. i definitely feel a real lack of urgency. i do think probably tim geithner might have been probably trying to stimulate just more action

here. it is the case that those extraordinary measures can prevent the debt ceiling from hitting for maybe as much as a month and a half, perhaps a bit longer, but this is very serious. in a way, the debt ceiling is more of a cliff than the cliff itself. the cliff is more of a slope. that is, when we hit january 1, if we go over it, the world will not look all that different. financial markets may jump around in unpleasant and volatile ways, but a lot of the problems with the cliff donnell appear, the economic problems, until we stay over for a number of months. if we can quickly reverse some of the damage we'll be okay. >> is that why, jared, if we look at this, it's almost a clean slate for both sides going over. is that why there's no sense of real urgency? they're both lie, who really cares? we'll figure it out on the other side. >> i think that's where they're at. certainly though way they can

get a grand bargain in the next few days, and it's starting to look like no way they can get a small deal. there's some technicalities that make it easier to reverse things after you go over. at that point, i know it sounds silly, but it's true. at that point republicans can support a deal without voting for a tax increase, in fact, because tax rates have automatically reset higher, they can say now we're voting for a big tax cut for the broad middle class. >> is that what's going to ensure that speaker boehner is not in danger is it. >> right. i mean, that's where someone earlier said, you know, he's got to figure out whether he's for the country or for his own job. in many ways he's preserving his own job by not pushing a vote by which the only way that vote would get over the legislative would be with a majority of democrats. he doesn't want to do that to preserve his job. once we go over the cliff, we can possibly do more of a bungee jump if we reverse the damage quickly. in that vote republicans don't

have to vote for a tax increase, which to me is absolutely ridiculous in terms of serving the economy and the country, but i guess the politics makes sense to some of these guys. jared bernstein, thank you. the storm is coming. look at that storm, the symptom is coming behind you. >> you weren't talking about a fiscal storm -- >> i'm talking about a storm storm. the clouds look ominous behind you. >> in washington you have to get your metaphors straight. >> i will work on them. thank you, jared. my next guess issued the following warning. we're about to see tea party 2.0, when boehner sells us out. the question is when, not if, the ahead party will be back. the found judson phillips was talking about john boehner making a deal. judson phillips joins me. good to have you here, your first reaction to what i've seen taking place. how can you be so critical of the speaker when he has bakley

dug in and nothing is getting done? >> well, it's -- first of all good morning, thomas. it's easy to be critical, because he hasn't done anything he entire two years he's been speaker other than haul up his white flag of surrender and roll over every time barack obama wants something. we have a huge problem. it's not our taxes. we're spending way too much money. as your previous guest was just talking about, we're hitting the debt ceiling, 16 trillion, they want to increase it to 18 trillion. by 2022, it will be 25 trillion the at some point this all comes crashing down. >> we already had the debt ceiling issue during the summer of 2011 being taken to the brink of having our credit ratings. based on the fact that neither side could politically come together. that was all in an effort to try to discredit the president so that they could get him out come november of 2012.

now, that doesn't happen. the president has a wide mandate to be back in the hoff. why does the tea party not get that? >> you know obama ran on the fact that he would raise taxes. more democrats were votes in. tea party members lost seats in this election. >> liberals lost seats, too. that's what happens every election. if there had been a great groundswell of effort that we have to raise taxes, we have to implement this huge liberal big spending agenda john boehner would be minority leader and nancy pelosi would be speaker of the house again. >> if the tea party were in charge and you had your

druthers, what would it be to get us over the fiscal cliff? >> first thing i would do is start going through the budget looking for places we can cut. >> every year the accountability office comes out with a report details hundreds of billions in waste, fraud and duplicated services. let's start cutting first. let's make the government do what american citizens have to do when things get bad. we have to tighten our belts. why doesn't the government have to do the same thing? that would be the first thing to do. i'm willing to bet we could get enough cuts in there that we could get us down to a balanced budget within a fairly short time. judson phillips, great to have you on this morning, sir. thanks for your time. >> thomas, as always, thank you. . mayor of marlboro new jersey coming uncriticism. the mayor will join mess next in studio. our big question -- should teachers be allowed to carry concealed weapons? [ male announcer ] this is sheldon, whose long dy setting up the news

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so a newspaper in westchester, new york, is defending itself after gaining national attention for publishing names and addresses of gunholders. gun owners fired back, saying the paper's decision invaded their privacy and could make them vulnerable to thieves. as this debate over gun control picks up steam, more schools are considering plans to arm school officials or bring in armed guards in the wake of what happened in connecticut. residents in marlboro, new jersey voted on a decision. joining mess is jonathan horn ec. great to have you here, mr. mayor. this was all done in the wake of

newtown. you looked at what took place in connecticut and respected your schools are vulnerable. how has the parents of the nine schools responded to nose this is going to happen. the response hag overwhelmingly positive. we have a community that cares about its students. we want to create a safe learning environment. what happened in newtown, first let me say my prayers and thoughts go to that entire community. we need to change our security protocol. we're all anxiously waiting for a report to come out in newtown, to tell us where the weaknesses are, but until that time, our community has made a collective decision to protect our 8,000 students, to put in our police officers in each of our nine schools. >> when we look at republican-led legislatures that want to arm teachers in an effort to prevent another tragedy, this is also in coordinate with what we saw in

webster, new york, where four firefighters showing up basically to a trap, two were shot and killed, two others were injured, in webs sister, new york, but i want to play what one of your own colleagues, michael nutter had to say about a plan like yours taking place in their area. take a listen. >> i guess, you know, out of last week's bizarre press statement, it wasn't a press conference, i guess mr. lapierre would then say that firefighters need to have armed guards go with them. i think it just shows that that was a completely dumb-[ bleep ] idea from the start. >> so he's talking there about the nra's reaction coming out saying the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with the gun. you're not a supporter of nra? >> not at all. >> but you're saying -- >> my job is to make it safe for the marlboro students in my

jurisdiction. i don't make state law, i don't make federal law. i don't support the nra, i want to get rid of assault rifles. i think we have to close the loopholes on gun control. that being said, our students need to be safe where they learn. what newtown showed us was existing security is not safe the people that rely on safety in our commune and they do an excellent job. the police department took a look at our protocol, and said that the only way to protect our students right now is to have a police officer present in the school. these are the same people we call if there is an active shooter event in 911. so instead of waiting the five minutes to get them there, they are present, they are law enforcement, they are professionals, they know how to handle themselves. the nra is using in as an excuse to circumvent the argument on gun control, and that's wrong. that's not what our intent is. our intent is only to protect

our students. >> so, as you say, through the limited capacity you have, because you don't have federal, or state powers, how do you think in the birth itself into a solution in the long run? >> well, i believe there will be a combination of things going on. i think we need legislation to get rid of guns. i think we knead to look at total school security. you'll see changes in surveillance, sfrurs, and you may see police officers more present in schools throughout the country. i know in texas, in san antonio, they just announced their 48 schools will have a police presence startic in january. i think you'll see a trend across the country. this should not be used as an argument that we don't need gun control. we desperately need it in the country, this is about taking numerous gun, providing a safe learning environment for our student, much like 9/11. >> and this starts next week. so we want to invite you back in 90 days to see how this goes

after you have time to evaluate. mayor, thank you. >> thank you for the time. randi weingarten will be andrea's guest, coming. we asked, you answered, should teachers be allowed to carry. peter writes -- no-no no, i'm a teacher. if i've ever required to carry a weapon or if i'm ever in an environment where other teachers are allowed to carries weapons, i will resign. the opposite side, saying the former cop in me says, yes yes yes. this from kate lynn, no, who's to say they're not going to snap one day and cause another tragedy? more guns is not the answer. we invite you to keep the comments coming in. find us on twitter and facebook. yet another twist today in the push to deport piers morgan. time now for the polysci board.

the petition has more than 80,000 signatures, the second one is to keep him in the u.s. there are less than 5,000 signatures on that petition. get ready for a battle from honolulu and chicago. the university of chicago and are both interested in hosting his future presidential library. the president's parents went to the university of hawaii, but the president was the member of if the chicago law school fact cull, so that school is widely considered to be the front-runner. leave it up to barbara walters to get the school on the famous picture. the picture tweeted out by the obama campaign election night quickly becoming the most retweeted post ever. >> so why were you hugging him so hard in iowa? >> because i love my wife. >> also, i hadn't seen him in a while. you know, when you're campaigning, you're like two shipments passing in the night. the first time i saw him was

when i walked on stage to greet him. that's my honey giving me a hug. >> i like giving you hugs. >> parent senator mike crapo is a vodka guy. according to the virginia police officer who arrested him for driving under the influence, the republican from idaho admitted to doing, quote, several shots of vodka before hitting the road. the mormon senator telling the associated press two years ago he did not drink. he apologizing for his mistake, expecting to be in court in january. some tips from the life options institute. make future plans to do things you have always wanted to do like travel or write that novel. get involved in community activities, volunteer to help others, make new friends, join organizations with members that share your interests, and stay healthy and stay sharp, consider taking adult ed or college courses. [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus presents the cold truth.

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welcome back, everybody. another member of the president's administration is stepping down. lisa jacks crone, head of the environmental protection agency is leaving. and jackson's tenure was marched by brawls over global warming

pollution. the keystone pipeline and coal fired plants. the president praising her efforts, calling her commitment to the health of families unwavering. former senator chuck hagel's possible nomination as defense secretary is taking another hit today. i want to show you this. take a look. it is the new ad from the log cabin republicanss. it says chuck hagel is wrong on iran, wrong on israel and wrong on gay rights. he's been criticized for his past remarks on the gay community, on israel and for his opposition to take unilateral actions against iran. take a listen. >> that trial balloon has been popped. the senator hagle as a possibility for secretary of defense has lost a lot of altitude. >> here so explain why it matters is democratic strategist jimmy williams.

jimmy, in all fairness, though, when it comes to gay rights, hagel has many coout to apologize for those remarks that he made almost 15 years ago. explain the unique situation that hagel is in here where he's being hit from both sides, democrats and can republicans. >> listen, i was a gay staffer on the floor of the united states senate. i didn't like his policy positions then. he has since grown on the issue. if that's the case, and the president wants to actually nominate here and hrc, which is actually the preeminent gay rights equality group in the country is out there saying they accept his apology for wa it's worth. i accept his apology. what's happening is the nominees who haven't been nominated yet that are being, i guess, in a way beaten down or voted down in the arena of public opinion before they even get to the

chamber as an actual nominee. that's a problem. and that, to me, is you have a lot of senators, both on the left and the right doing these things. i'd rather the president just send up the nomination and let the senate do its will. >> does that mean this balloon has popped, it's not going tor anywhere? >> yeah, i suppose so. and that saddens me. frankly, i would like to see a republican over the department of defense. i would like to see a formerly anti-gay republican sitting in the secretary of defense getting rid of don't ask don't tell. i would like to hold his feet to the fire so that we can show the republican party can't evolve on this issue and you don't have to be a crazy white wing conservative who stands by these ideas. >> real quickly, though, i have a couple questions left. if not hagel, then who for defense? >> you know, i don't know. they have plenty of great people sitting over there. maybe plenty of the under secretaries. i pay zero attention to the

department of defense. but it will be someone who has a lot on their play with don't ask don't tell, afghanistan for 2013. >> jimmy, great to see you. alex is coming your way next. what's coming up? >> thanks, thomas. we have the latest on how the fiscal deal could get done and why house republicans could think their best bet is to take their ball and get home. we will walk the cliff. tom ronafaruhar and ben white. plus, one man could hold the key to a successful second term for president barack obama. senator jeff murphy will join us to explain why before the senate does anything, it has to reform the fill la buster. and we will look at this debate that has been prompted by the movie "zero dark 30" with

professor, author, and emmy award winner. all that starts in just three minutes.